This blog is dedicated to our belief that nature provides us with its own healing and restorative properties and explores how we can harness the power of nature for spa and natural beauty.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Is Private Labeling Right for Your Spa?

Competition in the spa, salon, and beauty products industry is at al all-time high. Day spa signs are sprouting up around us like spring grasses, grocery stores and gift shops have their own little “spa aromatherapy” departments, and .com companies have the huge beauty and wellness market firmly in their sights. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for even large retailers to retain their share of the beauty products market when so many means of access to these goods is now available to their customers. Customer have beauty.com, eve.com, and the now famous Bliss catalog at their disposal and these companies make it very, very easy for your customers to browse and buy at home or work. If you haven’t awakened to this business challenge yet it won’t be far off.

This is precisely where selling your own spa brand makes especially good sense. As far as the consumer is concerned the only place to get your brand is from you, whether it be at the retail counter, by mail order, or through your own online store. Department and grocery chains are dedicating increasingly larger amount of shelf space to house brands in an effort to reduce costs and limit competition. Many even feature “select” or upscale choices within their own lines as a means of eliminating holdover ideas in some customers that house brands are merely generic or of a lower quality than better-known products. The decline of cereal giants like Kellogg is an example of the success of this strategy for retailers.

So are private label products right for your spa business? Only you can answer this question accurately. But if retail profits, customer protection, and building some real brand-equity into your company investment has any meaning for you there are fewer options available that can help you better than this can.